1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine control method and apparatus for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an engine control method and apparatus for a motorcycle, which is equipped with a tilt angle sensor.
2. Background Art
It is well known to provide an engine which includes a fuel injector, for a motorcycle and other vehicles. A vehicle has been proposed that is provided with a tilt angle sensor to detect the tipping of the vehicle, and is capable of stopping an engine when the vehicle tilts from an upright orientation by a prescribed tilt angle or more. The proposed vehicle is provided with a starter kill relay between a battery and a fuel injector and an ignition coil (an engine drive section), and also a fuel pump relay between the battery and a fuel pump; and operates those relays based a tilt angle signal from a tilt angle sensor. Such a configuration is disclosed, for example, in JP-A No. 135491/1996.
In such a conventional configuration however, both a starter kill relay to cut off electric power supply to an engine drive section and a fuel pump relay to cut off electric power supply to a fuel pump are required. As a result, the required number of parts is increased, and additional installation space is required for the relay switches. Consequently, when such a configuration is applied to a compact vehicle such as an off-road vehicle for example, it may be difficult to effectively use the available space in an existing component layout.
In view of the above situation, the object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle's engine controller having a tilt angle sensor. This configuration solves the aforementioned problems of the prior art, and is capable of reducing the number of required parts such as electric parts and the like and thus effectively using the available space for the installation.